Herb`s
InitialABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZClick
one of the letter above, then click on one of the herb on the left
panel
or type a keyword below, and hit search button

Herbal Medicines have been used for centuries to cure many
diseases. It has also been known as herbal therapy, natural medicine, or herbal
remedy. As research is getting more extensive in this field, more evidences
are discovered that prove their therapeutical benefit. But a-well balanced
information is crusial to maintain the objectivity regarding the use of a
plant material as medicine, in other word, it should be based on scientific
studies and researches (especially when it comes to dosage, use in pregnancy,
lactating mother, and children).
All information depicted here are based on studies and scientific papers,
nevertheles it should not replace a pharmacist, doctor, or other health professional's
advice, so, they should be treated as additional information.

Aspects
covered in this website are :

Scientif name / latin name of a plant

Vernacular / local names

Synonim

Plant description

Plant material used

Chemical constituents

Medicinal uses supported by clinical
data, well established documents, and traditional use

Animal studies and human studies that
prove their pharmacological activities

Contraindication, adverse effects,
and toxicology

Herbal use in pregnancy, lactation,
and children

Herbal interaction with drugs, food
components, or laboratory tests

Dosage forms

Posology or recommended dose

Herbal preparation methods (simple
extraction methods)

Products in the market containing the
particular herb or other services related to herbs

To navigate, just click a herb's initial above, then click
one of the herbs shown on the left panel

Despite the enormous amount of information obtained in this
field, yet there are still several misunderstanding that need to be clarified

Some of the major misunderstandings
are:

1. Everything natural is safe
Nothing on this earth is an absolute good nor evil, so do herbs. Some plants
can be used as medicine but some are also poisonous, and even those which
have therapeutic potential can be lethal if we use it unaccordingly (x: ten
pieces of digitalis leaves can cause a fatal heart attack in a nomal person,
and a cobra's poison isn't exactly safe)

2. Herbs are side-effects free
This is not true

3. We can consume medicinal
plants everyday
Medicinal plants are like drugs, with more similarities than we may think.
So use them only when we`re in a condition that requires them, not whenever
we want to, for example, high dose curcumin use in a long term can induce
mutation. There`s quite an easy way to tell if a certain plant material is
safe to consume on a routine bases or not, just see if that material is used
for everyday dishes, if they are, then its safe, such as garlic, onion, fruit,
and vegetables. But if not (for example it tastes bitter, or simply unedible)
dont try to use them everyday. Healthy body requires macro and micro nutrients
to stay healthy, not drugs, and we can have all that our body needs from food
components. Just make sure we have enough fruit and vegetables everyday, and
just a little spices.

4. We can use herbs as much
as we can
Like drugs, medicinal plants have what its called "therapeutic range"
i.e, when the concentration of the herb`s active constituents rise above the
range, it will become toxic, or when they fall below the range, it will offer
no benefit. In most cases the range are wide, but some medicinal plants have
a narrow range, for example: digitalis leaves.

5. Isolated compounds from plants
are better then the whole plants itself
This is not necessarily true, a single plant contains tenths to hundreds of
thousands of compounds. Some of these compounds have therapeutic potential
(which in most cases they act synergistically to provide a certain effect)
but some, on the other hand, can have adverse effects on human body, and many
of them reside within the same plant. Whole plants are equipped with compounds
to counteract these unwanted compounds. When we extract and isolate them,
we take the most active compound from them and use or synthesize them into
drug, in a way this is very good, because some plants have a very small amount
of active constituents that makes it impossible to use it as a medicine directly
from the plant (for example taxan, very active anticancer compounds from bark
of Taxus brevifolia), but on the other hand also strip them off from synergistic
multicompound effect and adverse-effects neutralizer. Either way this will
continue to be an ever expanding field of knowledge.

Please pay more attention on
the red highlighted items, since they concern the safety information on the
use of that plant material.We will continuously add more plants
into the contents, when enough information on a plant material have been collected.